New research suggests that local cooperation in federal immigration enforcement erodes rather than enhances public safety.¹ An examination of three leading forms of federal–local law enforcement collaboration, by Eric Baumer of Pennsylvania State University and Min Xie of the University of Maryland, found that none reduced violent crime. On the contrary, two of the arrangements significantly increased a person’s risk of experiencing a violent crime, at least among some groups.

The researchers also found no link between local non-cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requests—in the form of anti-detainer or so-called “sanctuary” policies—and higher levels of crime.

Federal–Local Partnerships Increased Crime Exposure for Some, Safety for None

Baumer and Xie analyzed data on violent victimization—experiencing physical assault, robbery, sexual assault, or rape in the previous six months—from the National Crime Victimization Survey. They tested whether county-level implementation of the following cooperation initiatives impacted violent victimization among people ages 12 and older overall and by race/ethnicity:

• Section 287(g)–jail enforcement model, which authorizes ICE-deputized officers to interrogate people who have been booked into local correctional facilities about their immigration status and to issue detainers that hold suspected noncitizens until ICE takes custody.
• Section 287(g)–task force model, which authorizes local officers in the course of daily policing to question and arrest people they believe have violated federal immigration laws and to issue ICE detainers.
• Secure Communities, which mandates sharing with ICE (via the FBI) the fingerprints of people booked into local jails, for the purposes of checking against ICE immigration databases and enforcement action.

For comparison, they replicated their analyses on anti-detainer policies, which place explicit restrictions—of any scope and for any motive—on local compliance with ICE detainer requests.

The researchers examined a nationally representative sample of more than one million interviews collected between 2005 and 2014—a period covering pre- and peak rollout of the Section 287(g) and Secure Communities programs. They accounted for potential confounding factors related to race/ethnicity, immigration history, income, unemployment, residential stability, policing resources, and other local and individual characteristics.

The three cooperation frameworks all failed to reduce violent crime in communities, according to the analysis. In fact, the only significant associations were between Section 287(g) and Secure Communities initiatives and an increased risk for violent victimization. Secure Communities increased violent victimization risk both for the total population and specifically for Latino respondents. Section 287(g)–task force models also increased Latinos’ risk for violent victimization.

Anti-detainer policies showed no association with respondents’ exposure to crime—meaning local non-cooperation with federal enforcement neither increased nor decreased community safety. For non-Latino Black and non-Latino white respondents, none of the programs or policies were significantly related to changes in victimization risk, the study concluded.

Putting Ineffective Policies (Permanently) on Ice

Baumer and Xie found no evidence to indicate that Section 287(g) or Secure Communities partnerships are effective at improving—or, in some cases, even maintaining—public safety in U.S. communities. Instead, their results support U.S. policymakers’ decisions to roll back Secure Communities, first in 2014 and more recently in 2021 (after it was reinstated), and Section 287(g)–task force models in 2012.

As for remaining 287(g)–jail enforcement models, newer 287(g)–warrant service officer models (authorizing deputized officers to execute ICE warrants on people in local jails), and other cooperation frameworks that may be reintroduced or implemented in the future, the authors call on policymakers to consider whether any are justified empirically. “Additional research is needed that assesses the impact of newer federal–local immigration enforcement partnerships,” they note, but “the research findings to date provide no evidence that contemporary federal–local immigration enforcement partnerships have reduced U.S. citizens’ exposure to crime.”

This article was produced under a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The work of researchers from the NICHD-funded Population Dynamics Research Center at Pennsylvania State University was highlighted.